I recently found this beautiful poem by Gary Snider about Mt. Ritter in the Sierra.. It brought back so many memories of a backpacking trip I did when I was 16 traversing the Sierra. We stared Mt. Ritter in the face for days eventually making our way to Yosemite Valley where we spent out last night on top of Half Dome. The experience forever impacted me. Someday I look forward to going back.
John Muir On Mt. Ritter:
After scanning its face again and again,
I began to scale it, picking my holds
With intense caution. About half-way
To the top, I was suddenly brought to
A dead stop, with arms outspread
Clinging close to the face of the rock
Unable to move hand or foot
Either up or down. My doom
Appeared fixed. I MUST fall.
There would be a moment of
Bewilderment, and then,
A lifeless rumble down the cliff
To the glacier below.
My mind seemed to fill with a
Stifling smoke. This terrible eclipse
Lasted only a moment, when life blazed
Forth again with preternatural clearness.
I seemed suddenly to become possessed
Of a new sense. My trembling muscles
Became firm again, every rift and flaw in
The rock was seen as through a microscope,
My limbs moved with a positiveness and precision
With which I seemed to have
Nothing at all to do.
Gary Snyder
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